How do I get Touch Arcade to review my game?

Agreed the system here does seem to work, considering the huge amount of games released (I heard 150/day ?).

It's a worse feeling when you setup a TestFlightApp beta and invite the team to check out your efforts, only to see that the email invite which TFA sends out never even gets opened! Eli once tweeted a screenshot of his inbox-count, it read something like "42..x"!! Guess that was over 4K unread...hopefully it wasn't 40k (I don't want to know lol!).

Well I was lucky as the great Dave Frampton gave me some excellent advice after I tweeted that my testers were slacking. (Public tweet) "@majicDave: @JezHammond_com TBH that’s probably telling you something very useful. Your players probably won’t get much further either." - cheers mate I see the light! :O)

Both things are completely different. Advertising is a service you pay for and get promoted on one of the largest iOS gaming sites, the other thing is the review.

I didn't say, they have to review my game because I advertise with them. I don't want paid reviews either, because I believe in objective newscasting.

I just think, if I already paid for their living an ammount of money which others earn in months, then I can expect a reply to my email at least with the words "Sorry no. Your game sucks. Thanks for your money though".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vovin

When they see a game or get notice of buzz of an app in the forum and the initial impression is good, then it's downloaded by them and played. If the game is enjoyable, they write a review. There are rarely reviews about bad games or games they don't really like.

What didn't you understand from the words "Number 1 all over the world for weeks"?
In german: Nummer eins auf der ganzen Welt, wochen lang.
I think that is pretty recognizable and doesn't really mean a bad game.
FYI the game's free version is still downloaded around 800 times a day after almost 3 years.

The game was even before Angry Birds and Chillingo... There were not too much big publishers back then who they could... let's say be friends with.

And to be honest.... I don't care how many emails they get.
They earn insane ammount of money, so they could afford 1 or 2 guys who read and sort emails the whole day.
They of course don't have to do it, because as we see, the system works this way too, but it shows how they don't care about you, me or anybody else, except the big players on the market.

And yes, if you ask...I am pissed off since then and I pray that one day they have a reason to come to me so I can laugh into their face.

Make a good game.
Get community on the TA forum interested in the thread.
Post on it and share updates.
The Mods will take notice.

TouchArcade is a fan service. If the fans want a review, they will get a review.

Cater to the fans, not the Mods. That's the secret.

Also- meet the dudes at a convention or something. They are real people and nice genuine guys. They'll probably give ya a minute to show them your game, so make sure you can show something amazing in 60 seconds or less, and you'll have their ear.

Make a good game.
Get community on the TA forum interested in the thread.
Post on it and share updates.
The Mods will take notice.

TouchArcade is a fan service. If the fans want a review, they will get a review.

Cater to the fans, not the Mods. That's the secret.

Also- meet the dudes at a convention or something. They are real people and nice genuine guys. They'll probably give ya a minute to show them your game, so make sure you can show something amazing in 60 seconds or less, and you'll have their ear.

Doesn't work always!
I remember threads where a lot of people were raving about a game but it never made it on the front page. Then there were threads which were barely visited, but the game got a full front page review. It always depends...

But no, tA is not a fan service. There were a lot of threads with people complaining because a game got no front page review, but even that did not help.

Hi, you seemed to be lost on the Internets.
This is TouchArcade, where 2$ for a game is too much, 5$ is an outrage, and 10$ or more is putting sugar in their car tanks whilst killing puppies.

I didn't say, they have to review my game because I advertise with them. I don't want paid reviews either, because I believe in objective newscasting.

I just think, if I already paid for their living an ammount of money which others earn in months, then I can expect a reply to my email at least with the words "Sorry no. Your game sucks. Thanks for your money though".

What didn't you understand from the words "Number 1 all over the world for weeks"?
In german: Nummer eins auf der ganzen Welt, wochen lang.
I think that is pretty recognizable and doesn't really mean a bad game.
FYI the game's free version is still downloaded around 800 times a day after almost 3 years.

The game was even before Angry Birds and Chillingo... There were not too much big publishers back then who they could... let's say be friends with.

And to be honest.... I don't care how many emails they get.
They earn insane ammount of money, so they could afford 1 or 2 guys who read and sort emails the whole day.
They of course don't have to do it, because as we see, the system works this way too, but it shows how they don't care about you, me or anybody else, except the big players on the market.

And yes, if you ask...I am pissed off since then and I pray that one day they have a reason to come to me so I can laugh into their face.

I will never get what all the hubbub is about "get my game reviewed on TA, it's my #1 goal in life." Oh sure, it would be nice, no one will argue that, but like anything I can't say it amounts to little more than a nice little pat on the back in some ways. Yes, TA review will get you seen more, and get your game a few more downloads, and might even help your chances getting featured in iTunes and all of that.

But those things can happen anyway without a TA review. Just the same, a review will not guarantee sales/feature/etc anyway. I've seen that happen more than a few times.

What one should aspire to, really, is this - make a good game. That's hard enough in itself.. and just as importantly, spend a large chunk of time building up a social presence, stoke the community, contact with & engage the media wherever you can. Try to find some nice unusual angles to play with the story of your project. Honestly, it's been a very long time since I've released anything and dealt with this stuff so I can only expect it's way wayyyyy harder now to get attention and sales then before (and it was already beyond difficult then!) Difficult but not impossible.

Overall, if you insist that you must get that TA coverage - keep a sharp eye on the games regularly covered on their front page. If you can genuinely produce something of the caliber that they usually like (this is a tall order), then obviously it's gonna be way easier to sell them on it. You really have to be honest with yourself, can your game hang with the best of what's being shown? A lot of what's featured is often looking like it's pretty heavy-duty production quality. Take a good hard look and see where you stand.

Doesn't work always!
I remember threads where a lot of people were raving about a game but it never made it on the front page. Then there were threads which were barely visited, but the game got a full front page review. It always depends..

Hah, reminds me of ShaqDown. What a dud of a game. Barely any interest in the forums. Mostly negative impressions. Yet 3 stories on the frontpage in quick succession for the game. Bah,,,

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